The traditional red beans and rice from Louisiana has meat, tomatoes
and sometimes other ingredients in it, and the beans and rice are
cooked separately, then served with beans over a bed of rice, white
rice at that.
There's an easier and probably healthier vegetarian alternative. In
fact, I have a bowl in front of me right not, fresh from the solar
oven. Soak beans overnight, rinse, add about a quarter in. of water
over the beans, place in a black pot with lid, cook. If like today,
the sun is bright, and the Sun Oven gets to 350 F, it takes about 3
hours. The inside of the glass will fog up and the temp will increase
when they are done. Next add seasoning. I use garlic salt and chili
powder. Add the BROWN rice and more water. To speed the process, I add
hot water from another solar cooker. Stir, cook another 2 hours.
Ideally, the beans and rice will just absorb almost but not quite all
the water. Serve with Louisiana hot sauce. High fiber, high protein,
nonfat and delicious. I do lentils and rice essentially the same way,
but use hot Madras curry powder rather than chili powder and lentils
take less time to cook. Again don't put too much water in with the
lentils at the beginning and they will cook much faster. Solar ovens
don't burn food, so if it does get too dry, not a problem, just add a
little more water at the end and stir. dkw
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